Steve McCaskill is editor of TechWeekEurope and ChannelBiz. He joined
as a reporter in 2011 and covers all areas of IT, with a particular interest in telecommunications, mobile and networking, along with sports technology.

Several of the tech sector’s biggest names have come together to form an Artificial Intelligence organisation that will explore the ethics and applications of technology that could transform the entire industry.

Amazon, Facebook, Google (DeepMind), IBM and Microsoft are founding members of the ‘Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society’, or ‘Partnership on AI’ for short, and will invite academics, non-profit organisations, specialists in policy and ethics to join the board.

Partnership on AI itself is a non-profit organisation and will conduct and publish research on an open licence in areas such as ethics, transparency, privacy, interoperability, reliability and interaction between humans and AI systems.

Partnership on AI

The ultimate stated aim of the alliance is to increase public awareness of AI, maximise the benefits to society, and address various challenges.

It says it is not a lobbying organisation and all members will contribute financial and research resources. The board itself will comprise equal numbers of corporate and non-corporate members.

“AI technologies hold tremendous potential to improve many aspects of life, ranging from healthcare, education, and manufacturing to home automation and transportation,” said the Partnership.

“Through rigorous research, the development of best practices, and an open and transparent dialogue, the founding members of the Partnership on AI hope to maximize this potential and ensure it benefits as many people as possible.”